Missing the appeal of balance bikes please explain

[Endofmytetherfinally]

Its my LO 2 year birthday party next week and DH wants to get her a balance bike.

But a decent one is 150quid (Byk). I just don't see the point if it doesn't have wheels.

I want to convince him to get a scuttle bug or an actual bike instead.

I had a second hand bike given to us and I asked a garage to cut the pedals off as the bolts were solid.
Cost me a packet of biscuits.

Don’t waste your money on a new one.

You can just take pedals off to make bike balance bike. Usury kids who learn balance bikes don't need stabilisers

Thanks for all the brand recommendations and those with helpful suggestions on why they're worth it. This thread isn't about 2nd hand vs new and landfill. I don't think anyone with kids can claim to be living a genuinely sustainable lifestyle but each to their own.

I first saw them over twenty years ago when I lived in Europe (not UK). All the little kids had them (I’d never seen them before). I thought they seemed like a great idea.

Try a decent second hand- there's lots of frog or Isla Facebook pages selling them. They are brilliant for getting kids riding bikes

They’re great but you absolutely DO NOT need to spend £150 on one. We bought a cheap as chips (new) for one, it’s been used by our children and no problems.

I was very unsure about the need for a balance bike too but we got one for our second child when she turned 2. It has been fab on the school run and for getting to places quickly when she’s wasn’t keen on walking. She’s now just turned four and has learnt to ride a pedal bike so quickly. I think due to her being able to balance so well. I would definitely recommend one. We had a puky and it was great.

Are you looking at a balance bike with a hand brake? We made the mistake of getting one for DS (many years ago as he now 18) without a hand brake and when he transitioned to a real bike still tried to brake by putting his feet down and struggled to learn to use the hand brake. With DD we bought her a balance bike with a hand brake and she then transitioned to a pedal bike easily. They may all be completetly different now too!

I'd definitely get your kid to have a go on one first. Neither of mine liked the balance bikes - ds didn't learn to ride a bike until he was 8 but he is dyspraxic . Dd was riding a bike with no stabilisers at just turned 4.

Why not go to a second hand bike shop, they’ll all be serviced but much more sustainable

I think balance bikes are great but would baulk at that price. Our wooden one did miles and miles of dog walking with three kids and they were all riding with pedals at 3.5-4yrs, and then we passed it on to another family. It didn’t cost anywhere near £150.

We got DD1 a Puky bike - bought new as a significant present. Puky was the best brand for her as she is tall and others were a bit small for her. She took one look at it and said "I'm not riding that, it hasn't got pedals". So we put it away for DD2. 4 years later, brought out the almost brand new bike and DD2 took one look and said "I'm not riding that, it hasn't got pedals". So if you have contrary DC like mine, then I would recommend not spending much on a balance bike. Ours eventually was donated to school as they use balance bikes in reception.

I like the idea of a wooden one (looked at kinderfeets but it's more of a trike) but he insists it will get left outside in the rain.

Will check our the puky, chicco, frog, islabike, strider and virus and go from there. Thanks all.

I'd avoid the wooden ones personally as they're heavier - we had the strider pro and a real benefit when DS was just starting on it was that it was light enough that we could hang it off the pram, then later if he did throw a strop for any reason I could carry it home while he walked without it being too much of an issue. I think because it wasn't an issue for us that he jumped on and off it at his leisure, rather than us thinking "today we're going cycling", it probably helped him crack it earlier and made sure we got really good use out of it.

Ours was a hand me down from a cousin, I think new the prices are crazy for the specific model we had, but whatever one you go for I would check the weight.

Get one from.facebook marketplace for a tenner. Try it out first. Lighter ones are better for.them to get the hang of

Like many others have said they are fantastic and proven to build the skills well to transition to pedals easily.

£150 is ridiculous IMO unless you have money to burn, we've only reached that price for bikes now at secondary age. It's been a few years but ours was more like £40 from decathlon. It had brakes which I agree is good to learn as they get up some speed!

I get not wanting second hand when it's for a birthday present. But I don't get what makes our decathlon bike any less as safe than the overpriced brands. It was well made and not heavy. And, kindly, your DH needs to get used to the idea that DC will fall off any price of bike and injure themselves. Get him to spend some of the extra money on decent helmet and knee/elbow pads!

I got a perfect one on Facebook marketplace for £10.

The only thing I’d say about spending out on an Islabike is they do hold their value so you can sell it on second hand when you’re done with it.

balance bikes are fabulous - no idea why anyone uses stabilisers anymore, they’re awful.

We bought a 'decent' balance bike from Asda for £20. It lasted 2 years of daily use (during lockdown) and got absolutely hammered. It only broke when big sister sat on it for a laugh and popped the back wheel out.

People ride 2nd hand bikes all the time, and a balance bike has less parts to go wrong, your dh is being silly

My younger two hated balance bikes, deemed them too wobbly and preferred scooting.
They learned to ride bikes the traditional way just like their older siblings.